Presswerk cross-platform issue and fix

If you are experiencing errors with Presswerk v1.1.0 when moving projects between Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, this page outlines the problem and provides a solution restoring cross-platform compatibility.

What happened

During the development of the VST2 version, a 4-character ID was used to identify Presswerk to the VST host application. This ID is shared by the Mac OS X, Windows and Linux versions of Presswerk, allowing cross-platform compatibility for project files. Upon the public release of Presswerk, the VSTID for the Mac version was updated to the final ID, but the Windows version was not updated. This discrepancy prevents certain host applications from loading Presswerk together with project files created on a different OS.

Who is affected

This issue primarily affects users of Presswerk 1.1.0 (or earlier) VST2 for Windows. There are a few exceptions: If you use Reaper, FL Studio, Renoise, NI Maschine 2 or Bitwig Studio (v1.3.9 or later), you are not affected and no action is required. Other DAWs / VST hosts may also be unaffected by the ID mismatch, but we have not been able to test everything.

Windows AAX and Mac OS X users are not affected and no action is required.

How to update Presswerk and restore cross-platform compatibility

We created a simple one-time process to restore cross-platform compatibility. Our aim was to minimize disruption to existing projects.

Projects created with versions of Presswerk previous to 1.1.1 will not open with Presswerk 1.1.1 (the IDs are now different). To address this, we have created the u-he File Converter which automatically modifies your project files and allows them to work properly.

The u-he File Converter comes with the Presswerk installer download and can be found inside the ZIP file Project File Converter.zip.While the Mac version of Presswerk is unaffected, we created a Mac version of the u-he File Converter for anyone who switches platforms from Windows to Mac and has old project files that need to be updated.

While we believe the above steps are the easiest solution. However, we understand it might not be the right choice for everyone. This PDF document outlines all options in handling the Presswerk cross-platform issue.

Click Browse… to select the folder containing the project file(s) you want to convert. The u-he File Converter will scan the selected folder and subfolders for supported file types, so you only have to run the scan once if all your projects are in the same location. However, we do not recommend selecting the entire hard disk as input folder, as the scan would take far too long.

Step 1: Choose files to be converted

After scanning the folders, the Choose Conversion Options menu will display a list of available conversions for each compatible DAW file type found. Click Select conversion... to choose the option you want.

Click the Convert button. The time it takes for conversion process to complete depends on the number of files.

Step 2 and 3: Select conversion type and begin conversion process

You will find a copy of your project file(s) in the same folder as the original. The new updated file(s) will have _converted added to the file name.(eg. MyProject.als is renamed MyProject_converted.als, or GreatTrack.cpr is renamed GreatTrack_converted.cpr)

Step 4: The converted files

The u-he File Converter only converts one file type at a time, so if you have project files from different DAWs you will need to run the converter for each file type.

When you are done all conversions, you may quit the u-he File Converter.

To check whether the conversion was successful, open one of the converted files in your DAW and see whether Presswerk loads in the project. If so, you can continue working as you did before updating Presswerk.

If you have any problems with the Presswerk update or the u-he File Converter, please contact support@u-he.com.